This E-21 discussion of Obamacare is a gold nugget wrapped in kraft paper. Some excellent points made- e.g.

“

In a recent essay in the Washington Post, EJ
Dionne argued that we had no choice but to accept that government would
grow larger in the future “because the private economy will not offer
the same security it once did through employer-provided health and
pension plans.”

“The interesting aspect of this theory – which is hardly unique to Dionne
– is the view that the government is some entirely disconnected entity
that is able to finance obligations too weighty for households. If one
assumes that government’s budget capacity comes entirely from the taxes
it imposes on households – Dionne’s framework is unintelligible. If
outlays are too great for the household sector to bear, how could these
outlays be any more affordable for an entity entirely financed by the
same households?”

”

The idea of government as an entity entirely separate from the
households that fund it is not only silly, but also exceedingly harmful,
because it distracts from the serious business of confronting
trade-offs and establishing realistic expectations.

But, this is no longer a battle of cost v. results, else it's over. It's
a battle of ideologies. Dennis Kucinich just flipped on health care to "Save
Obama's presidency" --- instead of standing by his previously stated
principles. To save Obama's presidency. Differences of opinion are healthy. Differences in ideology are not, nor have they existed at this level in all our history. There are not two American ideologies.

I nominate lotp for great thinker of the univerese, today. And not just because he here speaks my mind with his mouth. Well, yeah, it is.

OS, I fear that the
far left is quite aware that they are radicalizing the right, and will
use the first instance of violence as an excuse to ditch all but the
thinnest veneer of true representational government.

Remember: the far left hates the middle class above all. Their aim is
to destabilize, to destroy the day to day orderliness that allows good
people to go on with their lives quietly.

So yes, we're under attack. We need to:

Repel the immediate attack
Figure out a strategy
Counterattack - but choose our terrain, timing and methods to give us
the best chance of success

Longer term: clear and hold. Which may require Fallujah levels of
intense political combat, fighting for every inch and every building.
And then fortifying those areas and consolidating gains.

Right now our Fallujah is the health care bill and the sequence of other
'reforms' the far left is pushing in rapid succession (continued)

I always stood outside the political system, because my duty and
integrity demanded it.

A lot of us are uncomfortable with becoming personally involved in
politics, other than voicing an opinion and filling in our ballots on
election day. You can see that in a lot of us vets - like Pappy for
instance.

But I'm trying to do what I can -- that's why I went to the caucus, and
got my self elected as a delegate. For the first time in all these
decades of my life I have become overtly and directly involved in the
political side of things. Its not in my comfort zone, and I do not like
operating in the open like this. But something had to be done. The
problem is, it may not be enough.

I was not so worried before this, as I thought the usual political
machinery could be harnessed to correct this. That's why I jumped in,
to help try to push things the right way.

But last night really opened my eyes.

My perception now is that there are far more potential loose cannons
than there are people trying to secure and aim them properly. Malicious
power-hungry people on both sides benefit from them being the way they
are.

The Democrat leadership just does not seem to understand how this is
going to cause a number of people to snap their bonds to this government
(c.f. Waco, BATF and McVeigh), they are so self righteous they have
arrogantly ignored needing the consent of those they are supposed to
represent. They seem to think they can use any violent reactions to
crack down and further consolidate collectivist power in the state.
They do not realize just how fundamentally wrong they are in gauging the
grim fire and fight in that part of the population .

On the other side, the GOP leadership, in its lust for political power,
doesn't realize that these folks will break away from the system in a
fundamental way that will not benefit the GOP politically they way the
leadership thinks it will.

In order to remedy things, these "broken away" people will be looking
for far more direct and high impact methods than a voting booth (again,
c.f. McVeigh et al).

Hi, kids, my name's Buster Brown, I live in a shoe, this is my dog
Tige, he lives there too. OK Froggy, twang your magic twanger. Couldn't
sell a pair of kids shoes with that today...gotta have a BB star
endorse the shoe first. So, who was more ignernt?

”

While the commercial for Buster Brown shoes had a sort of cult
following, my gang wouldn't be caught dead wearing them. Not that
that we always had a choice. I remember three "must have" shoes
while I was growing up in Chicago.

Because we wore uniforms (khaki trousers, white shirt and brown tie),
shoes were the only way to have an identity, and were extremely
important in determining your position on the social pecking
order. My first "must have" shoes were what I remember as
"Flap-Jacks," which memory tells me were from Thom McCan? I spent
two hours trying to find them.

I recreated them above. (Just before going to press the real ones
popped up in a search for "white bucks" The description
said "with Nu-Lock Front." Maybe in the sticks. I can still
hear the commercial for Flap-Jacks.

Anyway, I wanted those flap-jacks desperately, but mother fended me off
with "they'll break;" "they look stupid;" "you'll look like a a
hood" Hood was pronounced "hewd," as in hoodlum. The real
reason was that they cost more than what she wanted to spend. She
finally relented however, and I was able to maintain my gravitas at St.
Francis.

BLACK ENGINEER BIKER BOOTS STEEL TOE
OMG OMG OMG - these absolute "must haves" met with the greatest
resistance. "You'll look like a a hood" I wanted these more than I
wanted Flap-Jacks. I wanted them with cleats.

I really don't remember what it was that turned her; maybe my incessant
Eric Cartman whine ,"but mommmm." I do remember getting into the
car and driving to a shoe store on Harlem Ave (and that when we left the store, it was nearly dark out). The boots pictured
here (from E-bay) are the EXACT boots I got. Hell, they might
even be mine?

At the checkout, I asked if they could put cleats on them, and
before the clerk could respond my mom said, "Absolutely not!
You'll already look like a hood, and I don't want my floors
ruined." The next day at recess I rode my bike to a shoe
repair store, and for 75¢ had the biggest, baddest cleats
they had put on. I made sure to walk on my toes around her, but
she soon heard me outside on the sidewalk, and blew a fuse. Took
a screwdriver and ripped 'em off. I settled for putting a
lot of thumb tacks in the heels.

WHITE BUCKS were next. The stylish young man
was then wearing gunmetal gray trousers, with pink stitching down the leg, a
pink shirt, and black knit tie with two horizontal pink stripes.
And white buck shoes. Mom was fine with the pink (duh), so it
became a matter of whether Robert Hall (Easter Clothes store)
carried them. They did, except for the pink shirt and stitched
trousers. She took care of that by dying one of my school shirts
pink, and stitching some trousers down the pants leg. They were not
gunmetal, and the stitching was .........., and not - - - - - -
-. To complete the disaster, she substituted these faux-bucks embarrassment for the realwhite
bucks. Nothing about being a hood, just too expensive. Did you
notice the look of pain on my face in the "stylish" roll over? It
was tempered, somewhat, because my best pal Tim Hill's (left) mother
made him wear that abortion.. Still, it's a wonder I didn't grow
up to be a serial killer.

We
have entered a political wonderland, where the rules are whatever
Democrats say they are. Mrs. Pelosi and the White House are resorting
to these abuses because their bill is so unpopular that a majority even
of their own party doesn't want to vote for it. Fence-sitting Members
are being threatened with primary challengers, a withdrawal of union
support and of course ostracism. Michigan's Bart Stupak is being
pounded nightly by MSNBC for the high crime of refusing to vote for a
bill that he believes will subsidize insurance for abortions. WSJ